Good evening. I call this meeting to order at 6:45 p.m. Directors present tonight are Director Titler, Director Defrdies, Director Kenberg, Director After, and myself, meaning we have a quorum. Thank you to our interpreter
Rodrigo. Would you please share the interpretation instructions with our participants and then we can turn on the interpretation function. Okay. The first business in order today is approval of the agenda. Directors, are there any proposed changes to the agenda?
>> Do I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> I move that we I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Do >> you have a second? >> I second. >> Yeah. >> Our next agenda item is our opening celebrations and updates by our
superintendent, Dr. At Cole. >> Good evening. Just a couple things to celebrate. Um want to particularly appreciate our uh district finance team who's been really hustling. Uh the team has come together to get an on-time
audit going. Next week we welcome the auditors on site. Um and so tons of learning with the team, lots of teamwork, lots of collaboration, great leadership from Chief Shakcoin uh to prepare uh for this audit and get a um a very eager and collaborative finance
team ready to go. It'll be a great learning experience for us and we really look forward to sharing the findings from the audit with the board at our second meeting in December. So looking forward to that work and really celebrating like the calendar and the the heavy lift of the finance team to get there. Um also want to really thank
the community for showing up and supporting um a number of election related ballot initiatives. And so just want to update the board on on how we're starting to make sense of where those are going as and you know a lot of these initiatives are aligned to and will
strengthen strategic priority number three which is student- centered partnerships. So, we are eager to support the implementation of 7A, the Early Childhood Education Special Tax District. As the board knows, we've invested significantly in highquality early childhood education. We're
committed to continuous improvement with that, and it's very expensive. Um, so we're really interested in how this uh special tax district will support our kids, our families, our early childhood staff, and our systems. Um so looking forward to support the development of
the program and the investment in early childhood education programs. Also um we were delighted to see the statewide support for LL and MM which will help us continue to serve free school breakfast and lunch for all students for years to come. Um it you know during a difficult
year with real threats to food security this is a win in the state of Colorado. Um and with that in mind I just want to share a special shout out to Chef Mattie Goodwin and his team at Crystal River Elementary School. Um the nutritional services team has done a phenomenal job
of really supporting student leadership through the student superintendent advisory councils at every high school. The nutritional services team actually caters for all of those meetings that um myself and Dr. Park and uh Joel Hathaway get to have with high school students.
And um this is the first time CRS we went to Bridges this week. they don't have a kitchen. So, we went to CRS and they just went above and beyond to cater for the Bridges High School students. Um, and so just really want to thank Chef Maddie and his team who took on additional work that day. Um, and then
of course in terms of ballot initiatives, we we were delighted to see the community support for CMC and so are already talking to CMC about some of the investments that they have committed to making through that ballot initiative around work in CTE. Um, and so we look forward to ongoing partnership with CMC.
With all these initiatives, we um also want to celebrate the Roaring Fork School District nut nutritional services team and early childhood team. We know that folks showed up um because of the work those teams do every day that demonstrate that we've got great folks running meaningful programs um and are
really appreciative of the community's support. Thanks. Okay, the next business in order is an October count update and financial implications presentation from Dr. Cole, Dr. Park and Chief Chaquin. Student count numbers get everybody. So,
we're going to talk about this from a lot of different lenses. Um as the board is aware in October we have our official count of students which is sometimes called October count. We wanted to come back to the board who we know is um very interested in outcomes of this. We had a
preview in early September. We wanted to come back with the actual data. Um so Dr. Park is going to take us through some of the data, some of the um some of what we're tracking and monitoring. Chief Shcoin is going to talk us through some of the predicted um and anticipated budgetary impacts of current data. and
then I'll wrap us up with some next steps of kind of where we are right now looking at this information. >> Great. Thank you. Um this slide uh just shows an update just monthly. Um as you know we really closely track student attendance and it's one of our priorities for improvement over the past
several years is to get um hope uh eventually a 96% attendance rate and our goal uh for our average daily attendance to date for this year is 92.8. You can see a little bit of month-by-month comparison um over the past three school
years and see the difference in August, September, October and um as a comparison the end of year average daily attendance for 2425 was 92.2. So we are very incrementally uh moving in the right direction. It was 91% back
in 2223. Here we have our student enrollment summary and we've been closely tracking this just about every three days since the first day of school. And so it's this interesting slow oncoming train as we can see uh as we're monitoring that. You can see by
school that second column is what they were budgeted for. And that and if you all recall um this is based primarily on the demographers projections. Um, and then you can see the 20 the the school year actual based on October count and then the difference in that right column.
And what we uh in summary actually I'm going to say this, we can see there's a lot of red. A lot of the schools actually had less students at the end um in October count than they were budgeted for. There were two
or a couple of schools um that were higher than that. Um but it's something that Chief Shaquin will also talk about later in terms of impact. We have here um the disagregated student enrollment um by uh both what their overall enrollment is uh free and
reduced lunch population um gift and talented sped float is primary home language other than English NEP and LAP non-English proficient and limited English proficient that is something that we also monitor uh because of the ways in which we allocate funding to schools. Um and then minority population
and white population. Um and you can see the uh differences I think actually in this yeah between these two these are the 2425 numbers and then the previous slide shows you the 2526 numbers.
Um in summary here when we're thinking about comparisons between 2425 school year and 2526 um like I said and showed there's an overall enrollment decline uh except for two of our schools which had um an increase in enrollment. Um we do have uh
a increase in the documented FR eligibility info that it's important to say documented um because of um potentially less forms that were filled in before but this is just in terms of documentation and then we can see some
schools that had um increases which you can see noted there. We do have some shifts in terms of our demographics. can see um those shifts especially with two rivers so and riverview and GSES. Um and when you look at the comparisons in our
disagregated student enrollment, you can see just the differences um in FAR population for example um between schools. And then the other thing um here in terms of comparisons just the total emerging um bilingual in program
emerging bilingual student counts um and some of the declines there. And this matters um as we think about uh additional allocations that we make to schools depending on their um English learner population. And so that would further have budgetary impacts. Thank you.
Um need that I have one slide. Uh perfect. Uh so looking at the projected budgetary impacts. Uh so the current state funding formula calculates based upon uh enrollment averaging for four years. It is going to move to three years probably
for next year if the governor's uh uh budget goes through, but for right now it's four years. So we only see a quarter of the estimated reduction for this year because we still have the students from the prior three years. So that's exactly how it averages. And so looking at that, we're estimating a
$550,000 decline in our funding for 2526 at this point in time. However, there is this little note too about the sub populations. It's a very important footnote because as um as uh Chief Parks
was saying earlier is that looking at our um FRL numbers that those numbers going up could have an impact on the amount of of money we get per student. So we could see a benefit to that so that we won't hit that $550,000 number.
But there's no way for us to know that until we get the numbers from the state um in late J December, early January. that's when we're going to have that information. So hopefully it'll be a little better than that. Um based upon some of the sub population information, but I don't have that's the best
information I have right now. Um so and we've already talked about the state legislator potentially moving to the three-year enrollment averaging for 2627. So that the estimated loss from student count from 2526 student count reductions
is going to be hitting in 2627. And that'll be even more significant because we're going from four-year averaging to three-year averaging. So it tightens up that timeline, increases the amount that we reduce each year. Uh so so we're going to see the large majority of the
impact next year is the basic summary of that. Okay. The other thing I'm going to note that isn't on the slide here too is when TRCS increases and our the funding for the other uh Roaring Park schools decreases that then it does have an
impact on the enrollment averaging because it's averaging those charters that are going up. So we it actually does have a negative impact on that averaging formula for this year. So just another note that's why it's not exactly apples to apples if you're trying to
calculate it out. So just another very important note to just consider. Okay. Okay. So go ahead. Oh go ahead. >> So what we are doing in terms of kind of watching these trends um you know I
think the kind of highle takeaway headline here is that we seem to be declining in enrollment faster than the demographer projected. Um, so what we are doing is we're we're in a position of trying to learn and get curious about this. So we're going to continue to
monitor demographic trends and we're supporting schools that who are already running calculations for their 26 27 school budgets and are concerned. Um, we are re-engaging with demographer Shannon Bingham to kind of reconsider this new information and assess um the 10-year
projections that he gave us last year given this new information. So, we'll share that information with the board when we get it back from Shannon Bingham. We are also doing a deep dive. The board might remember that last year, um, you know, we wanted to make sure that in a
declining enrollment district, we were doing everything reasonably possible to make sure that folks who were not choosing our schools knew what they were not choosing. Um, and so we really focused last year on a small pilot project of investing in some marketing support for Basalt Elementary School
heading into kindergarten. uh enrollment and if you'll notice Basalt is one of our two schools that's actually outperforming projections so they actually increased enrollment. So we have been working with the marketer who worked with Basalt to really take uh pay attention to what lessons were learned
from that and then look into how we can expand those promising practices across all of our schools as we head into kindergarten enrollment. So that's been really exciting work and feels proactive. Um, we want to make sure again that we're doing everything possible to serve the families that we are able to serve and let them make sure
that they know what we have to offer in our schools. Um, so we're doing that work and then we will continue as as we start to hear from Chief Shaquoin when we get into some of the quarterly financial reports of the impacts and more detail on how that's going to impact our current budget and what we're going to do about it. Um, so stay tuned
for a lot of those pieces. Um, I think we're ready for questions. Thank you, >> Director Colberg. Sure. I just have a couple of questions about our shifts and um if you have any ideas about why they're
out of alignment with um the demographers projections. I mean, I see that in three of our schools. We have reduced ELLL student counts. We have pretty significant decrease in minority students at SCES. Um, and so I'm wondering if you you think that the
shift in kind of our political climate and the state of our country uh in a broader way is impacting our local schools because it seems that some of our our decreases are are focused um you know what we have to go on is our we
we do collect withdrawal data of family when the families leave us and when we've looked at that and if the board remembers we did look at some of that data with you all in early September it seemed I mean one of the things that we can name for sure about the demographic study was that it was conducted before the new federal administration came in
which dramatically changed the climate and culture and frankly enforcement practices around immigration. And we know we don't know numbers but we know we are privileged to serve um a large percentage of newly immigrated kids and families. um we don't collect that data. We don't know that data, but we do know
that there are newly immigrated kids and families in our community that um you know it who are absolutely impacted by the shifts in immigration enforcement. When we look at our withdrawal data though, it paints a very complex picture that yes, it seems what we see is that there
are a proportion of kids and families leaving out of the country. Um, we can read into that what we want to read into that, but we do see a portion of kids and families reporting to us that they're exiting the country. We also see almost a comparable percentage of families moving to Western Garfield. We see another chunk of families moving to
the Front Range and another chunk of families moving out of state. Um, and so it's I think it's a I don't want to make any assumptions too far, but I think it's a complicated um set of factors that includes immigration enforcement, um, rising cost
of living, economic opportunities, housing, um, and those pressures that, um, anyone living in the valley knows exist. And then my other question is about, um, the free and reduced lunch eligibility
numbers across our schools. There are some pretty large discrepancies between our elementary schools um especially in the Glenwood community. There's one that's significantly higher than the other school. Um and then also with Riverview being pretty high. And so I'm
wondering if there's been thought given to how we allocate student population and why we're seeing a large concentration of students that are free and reduced lunch eligible at one school versus another. um and if there's any thought about considering how we're
sending kids where and if we need to adjust that because of staffing and other the other needs of the students. Such a great question and I I I think we consider socioeconomic racial linguistic diversity one of the the probably the
number one strengths and assets in the Roaring Fork school district. for a small mountain community to be able to serve a diverse set of students is something that a lot of children um can't access in small uh more um or less diverse environments and it's a key
piece of who we are and h what we believe and our theory of action of how to prepare kids to thrive in a changing world is that they get to learn with students who are different. So it is very concerning to us to see trends where we might be losing that representative diversity across our schools. Um, Riverview is our newest
school. And when it was designed and planned and the boundary lines were changed, whatever that was 10, 11 years ago, it was intentional to try to maintain that representative balance across our schools. And it looks like we're losing that. Um, you know, I I don't know necessarily at this moment
how we shift that, how we change that. I mean, I think part of it is telling the story of our great schools and what's happening um and what a gift it is to have students raised in diverse um and and educated in diverse environments. But it is a concern for us because it's so much of who we are. Um I will say
that there are um we are taking a look at particularly across our elementary schools, which is really the schools where we focus title one funding, right? We get title one funding from the federal government that then is allocated towards um schools with that serve a higher number of students whose
family's income is beneath the federal poverty level. We are starting to look as some of those discrepancies become wider at the way we allocate that funding. We want to make sure that it's having an impact and it's meaningful. Um, some of the statutes around Title One funding require us to make sure that
the schools with the highest percentage of free and reduced lunch eligible kids um are getting the highest amount of money and we want to make sure that that's meaningful. So, we are working right now to look at some of those allocations at least on the back end to your question of are we appropriately
resourcing those schools to meet the needs of students. We're taking a look at that this year. Um, but in terms of the like upstream work, I don't know that we've quite wrapped our heads around that yet. Anything else to add? >> Oh, yeah. >> Okay. >> Director DFred.
>> Um, yeah. I was wondering if you could go back to the note um about the governor's budget. Um, there is also anticipated to be an increase in funding in the governor's request preliminary which could be reduced by the loss of funded students.
Can you go walk me through that one more time? >> Um, oh, thank you. Um, so the governor's request also included, I believe it was a 4.6% increase in um, PPR per pupil revenue. So there is a loss that we're
estimating uh from our student enrollment but then also there's a gain there's a corresponding gain resulting from the estimated addition that the governor's request included as per pupil revenue. So that's just from the increase from the budget
and that's just his proposal that still has to go through the 25 legisl or 26 legislative >> process. It's got to go through the whole legislative process and it's just an estimate this point. Um I actually uh was on the call with the rural schools
alliance this morning and Tracy Rainey was talking about them talking to the uh the budget uh committee today about those and the joint budget committee and going through the governor's uh proposal. So this is very tentative and preliminary. So, this isn't something
that we can rely on in any way, shape, or form, but it's something the reason why I put it in there, I also believe it's really important to keep the board and everybody, all the the stakeholders apprised of what it looks like right now, so that there's no big surprises
out there um in funding because if we just talk about one part of the funding, the negative part, and then don't really say, hey, there is this potential for additional funding, then we're missing that that component, which it could be significant. ificant. So
>> yeah, I mean 4.6% per pupil is not insignificant at all. That's a >> Yeah, I mean significant meaning that it's in the millions of dollars, >> right? >> But yeah, I understand that it's could be still seen as something that is not
sufficient. >> Never. But um I'm interested maybe just to put a bug in staff's ear and board's ear too if the if executive branch has already come out with a stated increase. you know, what kind of lobbying work can we be doing, whether with rural schools or other actions with CASBY to try and
make that happen. So, I don't know. I'd defer to folks who've been I don't know. I'd be interested in working through that because if it's out in the open already and the bud and the governor's trying to win points by saying he'd like this to happen, let's help him win those points. >> Yeah. Um, my other question is
what there's probably no way to answer this specifically, but I know that we we brought the demographer online on board last year to try to get a more accurate student count. What would we have been looking at if we hadn't brought them on based on our old methods?
>> So, can you repeat that again one more time? know what I'm asking like with the so I've got you know we brought this demographer online to get a better view of what the reality was going to be because that's not how things had previously been done. >> So what we used to do is look at moving
all students up one grade and then see if we had an estimated percent reduction for the entire district. That's what I've done in the past and as I've talked with previous CFOs that's what they've done in the past too and that's kind of our old methodology of doing this. And then we've got the newer methodology of
looking at the demographers forecast. And and I believe that what we really started to do last year is to merge the two. So do two different calculations and then do some real data analysis around those and ask critical questions. And I believe that that's probably where
we're going to what we're going to do this year. >> I appreciate the thoroughess on that as well because it definitely set us up better for the other variables that we can't control. So um that's all I have for now. >> Director type. >> So just following up on both director
and freight's question as this demographer is then being rehired and we're taken on this demographer again in data that didn't come to fruition. Do we know where the misses were? Do we know what kind of things that they may be
missed on that we're then going to be able or are we just going to hire again and hope that they do better? Yeah, I mean I think where we've where I think we're seeing qualitatively the what we hear from our schools is that um
you know we have a really set welcoming protocol when a new student enrolls. Um, and if we have a newly immigrated student, there's a a range of of um, education and outreach and assessments that we provide for the student and
their family through that process. Um, and one of the things we've heard from schools is they haven't used the welcoming protocol in months. Um, and so I think that the piece that was missing was that we have often seen um, newly arrived, newly immigrated kids and families coming into the district um,
year round and we have not seen that. Um, and so I do think at a very high level probably what was missed by the demographer was the change and shift in immigration enforcement and um, uh, what do I want to say like the the narrative
around that for us as a country. Um, I think, you know, our interest in this was to kind of get this back to the demographer to kind of ask the same questions as like you you were right on the trend but wrong on the like you were right on the general uh direction of the
angle but wrong on the slope. Um, and so to try to get a sense of what his interpretation would be at this point, you know, I don't know that we will need to be using a demographer every year. I don't think, you know, I think it's a good checkpoint and backs stop um as we
try to tighten up our predictions against the reality, but I think um right now it feels pretty dynamic in terms of trying to pin down enrollment. Um you know, I think our one of our biggest takeaways is, you know, we thought we were being conservative in
establishing 25 26 numbers. Clearly, we weren't conservative enough. And so, I do think it's a conversation that this team needs to talk about. when we've talked about like high level what should the board be looking at where are the things in the budget that you should push on I think we all know and what we want to really codify as a team is that
boy those student enrollment projections really matter and it is important that the board holds this team accountable for like where'd you get those numbers how sure are you what's the risk what happens you know I think those are things that we're learning that we're going to need to be a lot um just have a
lot more rigorous interrogation of how we're coming up with those numbers the only Other thing I would add is um I know it's hard to believe, but we honestly would be in a worse place if we hadn't used the demographers numbers. This was a really hard conversation to have with leaders in the spring um
because we hadn't based allocations on on a demographers's projection before and so this was painful and we would want frankly be in a worse space right now. So >> that's good to know. That's good background. Thank you. I also have a question on the disagregated student
enrollment. Can you explain float and my understanding of float? Like if it's primary home language other than in English, wouldn't that include all of these NEP and LAP families? And why not? And where are those percentages? >> Yeah, the primary home language other than English is when there is a language
present in the home that is not necessarily the student's first language or primary language. So um they may or may not be in program sorry they they are not in program any PL is what I mean but their parents may speak Spanish to them all day but then their their
language that they use would be English. >> So >> as an example >> so if we were to add up float and neple that should add up to the total number of language programming kids include flu is not included in in
program. So that total English learners is just from NEP through exit year 2. It does not include any float percentage. >> So the NEPA plus whatever those couple percents are are the exited year 1, year 2, M1, M2.
>> Correct. Okay. Thank you. Um, then I also have a question about if you can tell us about the attendance and how it's like flip-flopped a little and so like what have we done two years ago that was
given us more bang per buck than what we're doing this year and why are we not able to reach those levels and I know you sort of said we let off a little bit last year of not making that our focus. I understand that drop, but what is it that we were doing two years ago that allowed better percentages than was
happening this year or is it just different group? >> I think it's a number of factors. Um, but the one thing that we did um like we shared earlier is to reup and refresh sort of the attendance plan. Um, and that is something that has helped for
sure. Um I do uh you probably remember there's a lot of communication from parents about what do you mean this is unexcused and what does this mean and so they're more ease to it. Um and um I I think there are a number of different factors and reasons why students are
absent. Um the other things that we have been working on behind the scenes is really making sure we have accurate data. the ways in which you know half day full day absences are calculated versus period attendance all that um has been really um important work to make sure we have right information um but
all in all our you know school teams are still doing really in intensive work our leons are doing intensive work to make sure we're addressing the root cause of abstences >> okay thank you >> thanks for this really illuminating presentation and um I if you'll hear me
out here I I think the marketing that we need to do for the um based on the pilot that was sounds like successful or folks were happy with I think that's great. I also think this is such a big issue and a serious issue that I don't think we
market our way out of it because when we do we're either going to gain kids from one neighboring district that puts them at a loss and they're our neighbors. We don't want them to be at a loss. we're going to lose kids to our other neighbor. That puts us at a loss. And I just think
we're in this perpetual spiral now that we're experiencing on the western edge of our district that's like an arms race for kids. And that's these are all Colorado kids. So, I just think I think the marketing could be great, but I don't think the marketing is where to
make necessarily the biggest investments. And I wonder and I I put a board tracker request in about this. I don't know if you saw it today, but you know, I think the thing that helps this valley and this community is affordable housing. And there are opportunities for the district to potentially really stand
up and support affordable housing developments that are outside of our immediate scope. They're not with our dollars, but they could either succeed or fail based on community support or
rampant nimism. And I think that is a place we could show strategic leadership that in the long term could give us people in affordable housing units, heads and beds, and then kids in seats in our district. But I think the market
I think the marketing stuff is great short term, but I do think what you're doing is pulling kids from different parts of the larger community. And I think as we're seeing play out in the media a little bit, it's not necessarily a comfortable place for us to be. So I
would just really push us to think through where we can invest our power as a district in terms of talking to communities about approving and not fighting affordable housing. Otherwise, I don't I don't see a solution on these
slides. >> I I um I really appreciate that, director, and I think and I agree wholeheartedly. And when we think of the the marketing effort and it's so I was careful to say I want us to be doing everything reasonably possible um because I agreed that like the
demographic trends for us we see it for Aspen even more pronounced for us and then things look very different in Western Garfield actually you know their projections are very different than our reality. Um and I think you're right like there's no amount we're not going to market our way out of this. We're not
going to reclaim or steal kids that suddenly stabilize us. It's just we need to read the writing on the wall. It it would be really poor leadership from our team if we were to take those demographic trends and say we're going to invest and we're going to become competitive. We can't make up children.
Um and I agree with you. It's a small pool. I think it's important that we tell our story. I think we need to be proud of our schools and we need to support our schools and we need to make sure people know what they're choosing or not choosing. Um and so I feel a really um sincere responsibility to do
that. um and to take some support from the the district. This is an area the district can add value that we want our school leaders to focus on leading and being instructional leaders and running great programs and this is an area that our district comms can support. Um and but I agree with you wholeheartedly and
I will say um you know to the typically our our historic practice when it comes to development projects has been to stay incredibly neutral and frankly abstain from a lot of public comments. Um, and I think the board knows because we shared it with you in in just an update a
couple months ago, the project that is currently um being examined by Garfield County kind of in the Mid Valley near Riverview. We actually stepped out of our precedent and we sent in comments um to that project. I think absolutely in alignment with what you're saying and we
said look in terms of things about traffic and utilities that is outside our scope. We cannot comment. we can comment on the fact that affordable housing for staff matters and we see this as something that could potentially benefit and also um you know having
affordable housing so that families with children can live here is something that we're very interested in and we also have the schools and programs to support the projected um you know plan that's out in front and so we actually did take a stand on that which is a little outside of what we've ever done before
um you know and we we were very clear saying there are certain things that are not within our purview to weigh in on, but we felt an obligation for exactly what you're naming to be able to say as the Roaring Fork schools, there are some strengths here. Um, and we would also be delighted to support the kids and
families that would potentially be served by this kind of development. >> Thanks. >> Um, can I just ask for clarity? So, what do we receive title one funding for? Title One funding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is tied to the percentage of
students whose family's incomes are beneath the federal poverty level. So, our free and reduced lunch numbers then directly impact the amount of Title One funding we get from the federal government. And it's also a component that is factored into the total program formula from the state. So, those
numbers influence both state dollars and federal dollars. And so I'm I'm just looking at these numbers right now for the um student enrollment in comparison to 2425 and it looks like most of our schools increased
more than 2%age. Is that correct? >> Mhm. >> Except for it looks like one of our elementary schools. And so when we're talking about funding for schools, I'm just wondering, you know, now that we're having conversations about that, what that's going to look like, what are we
thinking, recognizing that this is a huge gap in even growth um over a course of one year, when we're talking about equitable funding um and the future of funding for
these schools, what is that? What are we hoping to accomplish with our new thoughts of funding for each school? Because um I'm I'm just looking over one year there's some of our schools that went up
quite a bit more than 10%. Um what what is the initial conversations you guys are having about that? So the the only area where I mean one thing I want to name is that those increases again are are really on we would say documented um you know
documented free and reduced lunch status because we believe these students and families have been here all along but we haven't correctly gotten the data and so I do just want to pause to share incredible gratitude for the family resource center for the nutritional services team for the front office teams
who continue to refine and strengthen our outreach and application processes for educa what we call the educational benefits package. I mean our comm's team did videos this year. We just keep getting better at helping families understand and I also given everything we just talked about about current
climate around immigration and caut you know families feeling very guarded about sharing information. I think that that um data point and increase is a real testament to the trust our families have in us when we say we don't share data. We're not collecting information that has anything to do with immigration
status. um because what we're seeing in terms of stronger documentation is not what is being seen across the state and the country. Um so it's a real testament to the relationships we have. The only um I would say adjustment or equitable funding models we have related currently
related to free and reduced lunch numbers is the way we allocate title one funding across elementary schools. And and part of this is with um required by by statute, but the schools currently with the highest free and reduced lunch numbers receive additional funding that
is then shows up for them in their school budgets as additional full-time equivalent um FTE. So our our interest we could do there's there's other things we could do with that funding, but we've we've really invested it in saying we
want to give more autonomy to the schools to meet the needs of their kids at those schools um through staffing and through whether they decide that's small class sizes or more interventionists. That's up to the school of how they want to use that title one funding. The way we have currently done it is the
schools with higher free and reduced lunch numbers get more money per pupil. Um, but we can set the differential. And so what we have done historically when we allocate title one funding is ensured that some of that goes to all of
our elementary schools. And I think as we continue to see some of these trends and patterns, what we're feeling is that, you know, kind of the the federal the federal cut off for schools that wouldn't qualify for additional funding is any school that's below 40% free and reduced lunch eligible. So we even when
our schools come in at 35% 32% we have still allocated some funding from title one dollars to them not as much as the schools with higher numbers but some dollars. One of the things we're looking at with school leaders this year is should we address that and should we
really push more of that funding to some of the schools with the higher numbers because it is becoming a bigger difference than it used to be. Anything to add on that? And I I mean it's it's a little bit to be determined but in terms of calculations
>> in terms of how we would shift it or what that might look like and and I will say I think even hearing you a a concern I'm looking at right now is even the at the high school level you know I'm seeing bridges for example increased
more than 12% looks like. And so, you know, if we're going to really dig into funding and our funding formula for schools, I would say that the conversation also also has to include the rest of our schools. Um because I
mean, I get it. Bridges is a smaller school. you know, it has less students than maybe some of our other schools, but um like I I'm assuming there has to be we have to take into account just really the students that we are
receiving funding for that are in those schools. Um sorry, go ahead Dr. Park. No, I was um Bridges is funded quite differently in terms of it because it's a small school and there's things that we can't do at scale. But um separately, I think that
title funding that we get for elementary, if the board recalls a few months ago, we signed waiverss in terms of schoolwide programs and it's just for the elementary. Um the conversations we are having is you know how are we identifying the schools that have the most need whether it's elementary,
middle or high and equitably funding and staffing those for sure. Um we don't have concrete changes right now but it is a constant question. I I'll just say this. I think um it it would be important to me as we continue
to have our finance committee conversations that we consider that this um conversation on our funding formula needs to be moved up and we need to start really having concrete conversations about this sooner um and
like really work to codify a system or something um to be put into place because you know I don't know that we've always understood we've had presentations on the funding formula we've had some Some of us have had PD on school funding and I still
think that there are things that as we go through and as we're even going through some of this um data that I'm kind of surprised by. Um and I think we we I think we really need to dig into this in the coming year at least. Um
okay, each board member will actually I'm sorry directors we will now have five minutes for open discussion. Does anyone have any further comments or questions? >> I have one other comment. I appreciate director after your idea of us being a
whole community and taking from others. And I agree like to say we're taking from others, but I think we also need to look at it from a point of view of we're not going to let ours go away though. And I think that's different than saying we're making a plan to say how can we go
get RE2's students and bring them here. And I think that's a very different thing than saying we have students who are leaving our district and going elsewhere and what can we do to make sure they're not leaving our district because we're doing a great job. And so I just want to make sure that we
continue to work in that way and look at who our students are and why our students are leaving and what we can do to make sure that they don't >> I I appreciate you saying that, Director Titler. And I would I would say very like I want it to be stated very clearly
that one of our strategies to that it is not one of our strategies to address declining enrollment to pick up kids from other districts. It is not one of our goals. It's not one of our efforts. We're not interested in that. Um but serving the kids who live within the Roaring Fork School District um
boundaries. Absolutely. Exactly. To your point, I want to make sure that those kids and families know what we have to offer. Um and know that we're so eager and ready to support them. Yeah. >> Yeah. And I thank you for that because I definitely agree. It didn't mean my
comment to imply that we shouldn't tell the story of our successful schools and what we're doing to serve the kids in this district. Um I think there's always going to be some natural flow in and out in the state of Colorado where charter schools are, you know, codified as a a right for
parents. Private there's private schools. Uh there's a private school in Aspen that has started parking its bus directly across from my house uh every day, which is um blocking my view, but that's another point. Anyway, I think we definitely yes, we need to make the case
to keep our students. Um, but it's there are they're ours to lose if we don't do that. Um, and I and thank you for the reminder on the work that or the comment that was made in support of that development that I can't think of the name of right now. That was Mid Valley.
Um, and I hope we continue to do that and maybe even push on those opportunities a bit more and be a little more aggressive about it. Yeah, and I'll just echo the sentiment of um you know, continuing to try to get kindergarters into our schools and
trying to make sure that we're getting them um you know, as much as possible to pick us. Um I think that's going to be really important in the coming months and years. And um yeah, you know, I think declining enrollment is real and it's going to hit us regardless, but I
also think it it's going to be an interesting shift for this entire valley with the new special tax district. So I think marketing is a good idea. Okay. Any further comments or questions for discussion? No. Okay. Thank you team.
>> Thank Okay. At this time we welcome members of the public who have signed up to address the board. There is one speaker signed up tonight. The board allows 45 minutes of public comment. To respect the time of all who are present. Speakers are to limit their remarks to 3 minutes or less. Reminder to all speakers to uphold
our procedures for public comment. We ask you to be thoughtful and constructive with your comments and thank you in advance for sharing your feedback. Members of the public who wish to share their views with the board may always do so in writing at any time. For this evening's public comment, we received zero written comments. Our
first speaker is Denise Abate. Hi, my name is Denise Sabate and I'm a third grade teacher at GSCS. This is my 32nd year as an educator. I'm here to share my concerns about the resolution to advance educational equity
for emerging bilingual students in the Roaring Fork School District. Our achievement gap is caused for concern and I applaud Director Titler's desire to address this gap as an important systemic issue worthy of discussion, attention, and intentional work from all
stakeholders. However, this resolution is far from ready to be codified and implemented. On page two of the resolution, it states, "When dual language programming is not feasible, other forms of bilingual programming should be implemented with the foundation of a
trans languaging pedagogy to increase comprehensible input throughout a student's day. Trans languaging is a cognitive process that is individualized for each multilingual learner. Therefore, it is not a systematic explicit methodology
making it very difficult to have as a cornerstone of instructional practice. Additionally, trans languaging has not been researched at the early elementary levels as an largely oral-based strategy in the younger grades. There is little
to no research available on its support of students literacy development. Without a clear understanding of trans languaging, teachers can erroneously use code switching instead which has little
instructional benefit. At GSES, we have been exploring and implementing a biiteracy model for almost six years. This has not been an easy process. In fact, six years in, most teachers could not do an elevator
pitch highlighting and defining its core practice, its instructional framework, its scope and sequence, or even its intended purpose. The lack of clarity with this program model leads to inconsistent
implementation and obscured outcomes. Truthfully, an enormous amount of frustration and hopelessness as an educator. Secondly, biiteracy as we are doing it at GSCS is an or program. Students not yet reading
e in either English or Spanish at the third grade level receive either English intervention or Spanish intervention. Both scenarios bring with them some very significant challenges. Students in my third grade classroom who cannot yet
blend three sounds into a word have not received English code intervention and they've been here since first grade. But they are asked to read in English to acquire new language. Since by third grade students are expected to
transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Adding to this challenge is students are getting only a small amount of Spanish literacy and then spending the rest of their day learning in English with English texts. We have created a
situation where we simply do not have enough time in our schedule to develop robust literacy skills in either language for multilingual lang learners. Since we do not have a clear understanding of exit criteria or outcomes, we struggle to know how to
close the gaps. It feels like we are creating sink or swim learning environments with limited literacy development in both language as evidenced by our poor scores on CMS. Additionally, due to scheduling constraints of this model, we no longer
offer explicit EL instruction for most of our NEP and LEAP students. Thirdly, and perhaps most concerning to me as an educator is this top- down approach that removes >> I'm so sorry. I'm going to just ask you to wrap that up. Sorry. It removes
teacher voice, teacher knowledge, and teacher efficacy. Allowing one or two district administrators with little or no elementary education experience to overhaul educational programs at a school devalues everybody in the building.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. The next business in order is the approval of the consent agenda which includes routine personnel minutes from our previous board meeting and policies KDA, KHC, and KGA. Directors, are there any items that you
would like to pull off the consent agenda for a separate discussion and vote? Hearing none, do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move that we go with the consent agenda as is.
Do I have a second? >> Second. Copper vote. >> Director. >> Hi. >> Director Defrdies. >> Hi. >> Director Kenberg. >> Hi. >> Director Ramirez. >> Hi. >> Director Titler. >> Hi. >> Okay. The next business in order
discussion on policies. A D A E A E E C H C A C H D GB E E JB E E A KFA and KGB. Each board member will have two minutes
to share comments or ask questions. We will begin with Director Drees. >> Thank you. Um, I made most of my comments during policy committee and I think the staff has done a good job of incorporating them. Just a flag,
the AE um did have some language that was confusing to me, but um I think it's been adjusted and I did some looking up on the recommendations at the state level and it all makes sense. This is the waiver
of state law and regulation. Um, but if staff could just maybe take a second and clarify what that means, the rest of the board members who may just be skimming that and there's a bit of it just sounds weird when you read it at first. What is it actually saying? >> We can
we have the ability to wave some state laws and regulations that would have to come before the board. any sort of decision like that. Um, where we typically see waivers come up is in like our charter schools typically have a ton
of waivers. Maybe not a ton, but charter schools, it's much more common for them to wave some statutory requirements. And we'll see those as we go through. Um, you know, if you if you look at some of the appendices in our charter school applications, you'll see the the board policies, the state statutes um that our
charters have waved as a district. Um, and we actually just spoke about this a little bit ago. The um the only waiver that we our team as we dug into this, we're like, what have we waved? Was the statewide waiver for title one funding, actually schoolwide waiver for title one
funding that we brought before the board a couple of months ago that enabled us to allocate some title one funding to some of the schools that have free and reduced lunch percentages below 40%. Time is >> okay. Does that answer your question?
That's helpful. I just was glad to hear the context myself, so I thought it'd be nice if you could share it. Um, jumping to policy GB and skipping down to um the use of AI. I think this does a good job and it
aligns with other ones that I kind of pulled from other districts. Um, I just think I would maybe want to see one addition about H no says staff may only use AI tools
that are approved by district. Staff should carefully evaluate appropriateness. There's just there's a concern around generative AI versus a bunch of other uses, but I I think maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. This one does align with what I've seen in other school districts. So, I'll stop talking now. Thanks. And I want to clarify that
it's um we are considering the repeal of policy CHCA, CHD D and GB and KGB for the board. Director Titler, >> thank you. I'm do have a question about the repeal policies and just in the
future I think it would have been helpful for me to like saying well they're available in other policies to be able to have those like policies given to us to say like where they are because it was hard for me to know that they were in those other policies and to
be able to see how they were covered. Um so that would be helpful. And then I have a question about CHCA and about the handbook and like if schools have handbooks and especially um whether they need a board
approval and whether they should be consistent with other policy and strategic commitment within the district and I'm just curious to know where that one is specifically about schools handbooks is if we're repealing those and saying
we don't need that. I'm just curious where that's covered >> like where the >> it says they're being repealed because they're in other policies and I'm curious like what does it say in another policy about how handbooks that schools
are using to show consistency and to show that they're being approved and where is that covered and how is that being done? >> Good question. I do not have an immediate answer for you, but we can follow back up with one. But that's second read.
>> And that was just the one that stood out of the ones that we were repealing, but just to know like if we're repealing them, more detail on that would be really great. >> Sure. >> Kenny, is this about the one um the GBA the social media or a different one?
>> I'm sorry. is on the call is being repealed because that language is now in GBE. So Amy's on there. Um but I think you may be talking about the other ones. >> I'm talking about CHCA. Okay. >> I didn't know where this was coming
from. >> And I was seeing none. >> Remove the pen. >> I have our room pinned. Thanks. I don't need that answer now. >> Maybe in a couple months
>> back from >> director after. >> Yeah, I don't have any questions on the the policies. Um I did have a question about how we use AI in the classroom. Can I ask that in this context? Um I'm
curious how given the policy and the linking references and etc. I've I kind of understand what the rules are for students using AI. Um how are stu how are teachers allowed or not allowed to evaluate students using AI? And
um do we have do we have policies on that? Have you guys thought thought through it? Like how how is AI being used to evaluate our kids? Do you mean evaluate like giving formative feedback or grades or or whether a student could use it or not? >> No, no, I'm talking about evaluating
their performance in the classroom. >> Um, I have a specific example if it would help, which is I I suspect it's being used in elementary school report cards based on how they're written. I'm seeing nods in the back room back, so maybe I'm wrong. Um, but
that was a question I had is is it being used to create content for report cards? I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm just curious. >> Not to my knowledge actually. um where I have seen um it used in the classroom for example is
not necessarily whether it's to give formative feedback for kids but um if students are getting started on some kind of ideas and um for example I've seen in a capstone class right like when you're thinking about the kinds of topics you're interested in what might they be and so
it just gets kids started versus use generative AI to write your paper more about how teachers are teachers are using it to make >> teachers I mean people use it at work all the time so that would that wouldn't be surprising or a shift but I'm just curious if teachers are using it in the
process of evaluating students in a written in any kind of qualitative or written way >> I don't know because I haven't asked teachers that question directly but I don't think so for elementary report card comments I also have not read
report card comments so I'm not sure if there's specific ones that you're referring to in terms of it sounds like it. Um, but to my knowledge, it's not a common practice. >> Okay. And I would say it wouldn't be unreasonable to imagine and this isn't
this isn't necessarily an AI to tool but a digital tool that when teachers end up writing the same comment 15 times the the thought it would not surprise me that they have some templates with common comments that are used
and and you know just kind of templates of feedback. Um, yeah, >> I would say that would not surprise me to hear that as terms of just like time-saving process. >> Yeah. Okay, that makes sense. I think Am I out of time? Oh.
Uh, okay. I think templates make sense. I think uh report card content that's like your your students your child's shows executive skills. he or she does does
perseverance really well. You know, it feels like AI to me or maybe it's just a template and there and um so that isn't related to this this policy, but it's what made me wonder about how we're
using AI in evaluating students. Got it. I would say it's likely a template and I only say that because as a teacher writing lots of report card comments, I would do that too sometimes. um especially if it's like a particular type um or if it's these five or seven
kids are working on a common thing then I think they can have somewhat similar comments. I do of course you know you have to make sure that the names are correct and the pronouns are correct. >> Um for sure I don't have any other questions on the policies.
>> Thanks team. Um, I did want to just add for the school district mission. Um, and I >> Oh, I'm so sorry. Director Clember, >> I don't have anything. Anyway, all my questions answered in policy
committee. Um anyways um so on policy ad I did want to just um and I did um share with um director Kenberg and the superintendent um that you know one of the um things
that the school district doesn't really have an accountability tool for is the mission. Um, and so I would like to add language um to this policy to ensure that the mission is updated and reviewed
um as needed in alignment with the strategic plan. I think it's appropriate for us to be doing the visioning process and to be looking into um the mission. I think I share that the last time we updated our mission and my siblings were
in high school um and my youngest sister is having her third baby right now. So, it's been a long time. It's been at least 13 years. Um, and I think it's something that we need to as a board be um, be up to date on and for the team
and the superintendent's team as we're doing our strategic plan and visioning process um, be able to also get feedback for this. So, I'm sorry I didn't add the language in the policy. I know we talked about it, but it would be helpful to
have some language around alignment on that. And I just check um you're recommending that the language says that it's in alignment with the 5-year strategic plan update. >> Okay. We'll bring it back to policy committee and work on that >> and specifically review and gather
feedback versus change it. >> I mean if it needs to be updated. >> Sure. Yes. But I think it's two different things in a in a policy right to say it's changed in alignment with the strategic plan versus it's reviewed and confirmed that this is still the right mission with a strategic plan.
Yeah, I mean um I think confirmed is the right action. I think I mean if we need to add language to say you know every 10 years we should we should update. I mean the thing is I don't think the
thing is that I don't know maybe we should do some research to see what other schools have done with their mission. I don't know if that is a um like a set expectation for other schools. I don't believe it is. >> I don't think so. >> Um but I I do think we need to make sure
it's aligned to the strategic plan and to what our goals are. Like there has to be like I'm thinking of all the kinder parents today and sure our mission is sounds great and you know but would they come up with something different probably.
Um, and so yeah, I think my hope is that you guys review and update as needed um to make sure it's in alignment. Okay, back to my agenda now.
Um, okay. Directors, we have five minutes for open discussion. Does anybody else have any further comments, questions? >> Okay. Thank you, team. Oh, never mind. The next business in order is the approval of policy JB. Do I have a
motion to approve policy JB? >> I move that the board approve policy JB as presented. >> Do I have a second? Second. Okay, we will now have two minutes for discussion for each board member. Uh, Director Titler.
>> Yes, I have a few questions about the entry age requirements. Um, it said in order to support families through this transition, we will permit exemptions. What is the time frame for this transition period? I wasn't able to see
that or understand where that is. >> It's one year. So, it's for 2627 and specifically for families whose child will turn five between August 16th and October 1st. >> Mhm. Okay.
>> Sorry. Just for just for next year. So, they're turning five next >> Yeah. >> 2026. >> Um and then I was confused by the like the one that went with it, JBR. And I don't know if we're talking about JBR right
now, but it wasn't like per se on there. But I was confused about the part that except talked about exemptions for military families and saying if they transfer in after the kinder year has started, why is that exclusive to military families? Wouldn't that be any
family that's transferred in and has started a kindergarten year with their child if they had different cut off dates from where they came in and then they come here? We're not going to like say, "Oh, you're too young even though you started kindergarten." Or and why is
that specific to military families? There's law with active duty military families and um exemptions for entry age cut off just due to the is it not transient nature just moving
and supporting them. And then the third bullet actually in that regulation does reference families transferring out of state. Student who's at least 5 years old by the district cuto off may be admitted to first grade. It talks through first grade if they have attended a full year of kindergarten in another state.
>> Right? But what if they've done half a year of kindergarten from another state and they move here and they want to continue their kindergarten year? How are we going to now tell them you can't do kindergarten this year even though their child had started kindergarten? and now say they have to start their kindergarten over.
>> Um I believe the state lang in terms of our auditing processes for the state they are required to complete at least 120 days but I want to make sure I get the actual like right language with you. I've actually talked about at length with our student records.
>> So when you're saying like they need to have done 120 days and if they've done 120 days then they can start first grade. Correct. >> I guess I'm not understanding. I'm saying like a family moves in, they started kindergarten, they get here, they think they're going to start continue what they've started with their
child is kindergarten, and now they get here and are told they can't do kindergarten. >> And I understand that they're saying that's an exemption for military families, but I don't understand why we would say that's an exemption for military families and not other families
who are in that same boat. Yeah, we're trying to, you know, in my conversations with other districts who have earlier cuto offs and I, you know, asked this question, what are the challenges experience? What are the certain circumstances in which you're doing exemptions or not? Um, you know, we had conversations about uh going to
another district that has a later cut off for a day or a week or two weeks and then coming and saying, "Well, I've already started kindergarten." um as one thing and I don't think that happens all the time but that is something that the districts I reached out to >> okay were um mentioned um but that is
something that we can also you know just take a closer look at um in terms of conversations about it I think the interest here in the early admittance is to be as clear as possible upfront see what happens and then if we
need to make adjustments in terms of the regulation we can consider that >> so When would that regulation be looked at? Like is that something coming up and or is this the time that we're looking at it or is that on a future agenda? >> Well, regulation is not required by the
board, but it is something that the board did ask for clarity on. So, we're bringing it in terms of there being clarity and guidance in in the exemptions exceptions, sorry. Um, but it's also some this change in date hasn't been something we've executed
yet. So, I'm sure we will also learn things along the way. >> Okay. I would just be curious to hear what other board members think about that as being a military exemption versus anybody moving in exemption as we go around. Thank you. >> Correct. Dr.
>> Yeah, I didn't think I had questions, but I agree with your questions. And so now I have questions. Um or just to double click on what director Tyler is saying because we've got exceptions for military families and we have exceptions for families transferring from out of
state >> and homeless or foster children. >> Homeless or foster, sorry. Um, so if a if a family from Denver moves here, not associated with a military or a foster
homeless situation, and their their kids started kindergarten in Denver, would they be able to start to to enroll if they haven't completed a full year of kindergarten?
>> No. It seems like I know it seems a little funny and I think the governor county mentioned it >> unless you say that there's like there would this wouldn't happen because everybody every other district in the state is on this same timeline. >> It's not and the table that we shared in
the memo actually just illustrates that there's a spread from May 1st to October 1st. So, I I I agree with Director Titler that um families who move to the valley uh we might want to broaden the
exception if that doesn't create undue hardship for the district. And that's all. >> Okay. Director Columbrick. Um, I echo that concern and in policy committee we did we pushed a lot and asked for additional information
including like rollout information and um communications plans in terms of how this is going to be communicated to families and um I definitely have that concern and just a general concern
that there is limiting it to the one year of transition. been is different than the original 2 years, right? Like we had that 2-year transitory period at first, which I was a little more comfortable with. Um,
and then not having some sort of mechanism for enrolling a child who is between August 15th and October 1st, but is not early. access
still catches me because there are so many like there are always kids that it is a disservice not to send them. And so that's still hard for me and it is colored by my own experience with my kids and I have one of each. one that I held, one that I sent like all the
September birthdays and like um but I know how hard that is to put into place >> and to to do and how much pressure that would put on principles um to be the decision makers, but it is still something that is hard for me to square
in my own mind with this. And I understand the reasons that we want to push the date up and totally get it and the expectations of kindergarten are so much greater than they have been previously and we're expecting these kids to be able to really engage in real learning at a much higher rate um than when kindergarten
was like pasting and cutting. So um those are my concerns. I am supportive of us transitioning. I think the board should know that neighboring districts are also transitioning. Um ASD is transition transitioning to August 1st
starting next year. So >> director >> um yep some of the similar concerns I I appreciate doc director Tyler's comment um and I want to push on that as well. If a student has engaged in kindergarten in another district and they move here,
we got to find a way. We got to find a way to allow them to join. If they've experienced kindergarten and their family has planned their finances and their decisions around it, we have to be able to look at that. Um, I think I also found myself in the position that
director Koulenberg described having an August birthday kid who was very ready for school. She would not have made this cutoff. We would have had a really difficult year. I understand UPK is part of a solution financially, but it is certainly not a full solution for most
families. Um, and so I fortunately I think this is in regulation. I I do want to encourage the district to reexamine that regulation with this kind of you those two major concerns the mid-year transfer non-military and then
I don't know if there's a way to phrase regulation around financial I don't want to say hardships necessarily for me it would have been hardships at that time um but yeah I I also want to echo and I hear staff's concern that you don't want to lay this at the feet of every
building leader who has to make one by one call. So, I still have reservations about this. Um, I did see the communications plan in the board update and I think that that is looks good. I think the FAQs are good. I think the press release is important. Um, and then
one final thing, I really think if it's at all possible, we need to go back to a two-year roll out because people have enrolled their three-year-olds in preschool with the thought that they're counting one, two, and then kindergarten. and I don't know where their birthdays are, but those three-year-olds that are already in
there this year, their parents are have been considering if they were at the old cutoff that they're going to be in kindergarten in two years. So, I would I would strongly encourage going back to that. I know this is outside the process, but centers have also moved kids through
rooms and preschools in anticipation of when they're going to kindergarten. So, you're going to be forcing kids to repeat their pre-K year >> that are already on that path >> with the two-year roll. >> With one year, with the two-year going back to two, >> there's more lead time as they move
through preK1 and pre-K2 rooms, but >> didn't respond. >> Am I responding? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Jump in, please. >> No, I was gonna say I think these are all really valid points and there's probably these are all probably parts of the questions why it's taken seven years to get here.
Um and I think that um you know in our conversations with directors with like staff with people and we we did consider it and you know the original plan was a two-year which almost unanimously everyone said this is so confusing um when we're trying to explain the one month at a time roll back and the
exceptions for this time and then with UPK and our conversations with the I think it was Rocking Mountain um early childhood um try and explain that that actually further complicates UPK ibility because of the three-year-old four-year-old funding. Um, and I know our other conversation was is that
August is it August 1st? Um, and then we shift to August 15th to align with the typical beginning of school. Um, and to hopefully ease that in one year. Um, and I think you raised really good points. Um, and you're right when you know in our conversations with leaders, it is a lot of burden to say like you can make a
decision at the building level and building leaders are like, I just I just need something clean or it's clear so I don't it's just hard with individual situations and um in conversations I've had with other superintendents around the state who have earlier cut offs, I've asked them what have their
conversations been like and how has that panned out. Um, and they also explain it is hard for sure. Um and you know some of them their cut offs are so much earlier. I was like wow that is May is very early. June is really early. Um but uh I also understand that a transition
like this in this transition time is tough to think about. Um, and we're also trying to be in a space where we can have some really clear guidance so that we're not further causing an inequitable situation with families who can
potentially know like, oh, if I just ask or, you know, then my child can get in early. Um, and we also want to really try not to put that burden on school leaders. >> Um, thanks team. I don't have any further comments. Um I think the board
has shared their concerns. This is a policy that we are approving tonight. So if anyone has any amendments, I would ask the board. Um we have 5 minutes for open discussion. If anybody wants to add any further conversation to this,
>> I guess go ahead. I how do we can we add the some language around at this point around kids who are coming who are moving here from instate
>> that's in the regulation so that can be added at any point in the future we wouldn't have to decide on that tonight. >> Thank you. Yeah, I feel more comfortable now. >> Even so, it feels like the time is now to have that conversation. And I feel like I'd be hardressed to say yes to
this policy at this point without talking about the company regulation and having changes there. >> I think we could. I mean, I think that what you're advocating for in terms of
having a an exemption for mid-year transfers that are non-military is not necessarily going to implement the roll out, which is why there's some urgency. So, I do think that it is fair for us to um if the board is directing us to take
JB-R back to policy committee to consider this, I think we have time on that. I don't think that that would play in tomorrow. >> Right. So I actually I I would say that I think that if there is consensus among the board to to revisit JB-R through um
policy committee, we can we could work through that in that context. >> Yeah. I I just I agree. I don't I don't think it's as uh easy to say exceptions for families transferring from anywhere
who've had any kindergarten. And again, this is just based on other conversations I've had with other district leaders on how it's panned out. Um however I do agree this right now the communication um to families is 42627
for that time frame August 16th October 1st family can request to enter can enroll their child in kindergarten and there's not like a barrier or form or you don't have to be military or anything like that that's the exception year right now and so I this is going to be an issue in 2728 or for 2728
so um I do think it gives us time as a district to understand how is this rolling out, what's the impact, what's the communication, what are we seeing before we make a a significant change regarding um transfers of families from a different district or the state who
have started kindergarten or for any amount of days. Does that help with and again be >> I guess I feel comfortable if we're saying we're going to bring it back to policy committee then I could be a go but if we're so if we say we're bringing
it back to policy committee and we have a time on when that would happen then I'm good but without that I would feel I would be a no >> this policy is not coming back to policy committee but the regul I'm saying the regulation coming back coming to policy
committee Yeah, but the vote would be on the policy tonight >> that I understand. Yeah. >> Is there I want to to know that it is going to come to policy committee. >> Yeah. And I think that like the language that you're talking about would be like
I can think of language that would encompass what we're saying you could put into a regulation. Um, so I don't think that would be an insurmountable task to address it in the regulation. Um, in terms of the one year versus two
years, would there I don't know, charge to freedies, do you support an extension to >> Yeah, I really I feel I have a lot of strong feelings that two-year roll out, we have to be able to reach the pe the kids that are three. I just the families, everyone's making impossible
decisions around childare. they will not be the ones benefiting from our upand cominging early childhood funding. I don't quite know how to do that. I hear very clearly the staff you guys have spent time identifying all of these difficulties and the UPK implications
are significant. Um that's not tied to this policy though. >> No. And I think it'd be very easily easy in the language of the policy. In that first sentence of the second paragraph, you would say we will permit exemptions during school year 2627 or during the
enrollment period for 2627 and 2728, >> but it would be covered in in the regulation, right? >> It would not. No, it would not. >> So early admittance and early access are two different things and we're talking early admittance during transition
period. I'm looking in the and the policy would also have to I mean if you guys are going to add dates then then you would have to update that. >> Um >> I mean right now it's vaguely called the transition period. >> Yes. I thought that was vague.
>> I have a question. Um so I know that other districts are aligning right now. Do they have have you guys had conversations about this being a one-year roll out? >> Okay. So, I think that the reality is that if we're going to stay align to what
everyone else is doing, then this is going to depend on the team making sure that your guys's roll out is incredibly tight and effective. I support us staying on track to what you guys have worked on already. And I think that that
work has been really important for you guys to like you have heard our discussion, you guys know that it's this is going to be incredibly important for you guys to execute well. Um, and I also think that if you guys need to go to policy
committee and talk about this in your talk about the regulation and come back to the board to give us an update, then I think the board will h, you know, be able to have uh, further conversation on this topic. I just think right now we're voting on this policy and we need to
decide if we're going to vote. >> Yeah. I mean, we can make intervening motions to amend it though. >> Yeah. So, >> if the board wanted to amend it, >> um I mean it could also be approved tonight and then we could bring it back to policy committee and update it. >> Yeah. At the next two meetings, like
there are options to get us all to a place where we're comfortable, I think. And so, I don't want us to feel constrained by time. Like, I think we can approve it and you guys can move on what you need to move on and we can also then bring it right back and continue to discuss it and refine it without changing the ultimate cutoff date. I
think there's agreement from the board on having an August 15th cuto off date. I think it's these like nuances that need to be worked out and so I don't think it's like a either or like I think we can get there. >> It it
for our local community partners it felt very important that whatever the decision is that they can communicate what it is as quickly as possible which I agree with. And what I'm hearing um you say director Koulenberg is not necessarily a I'm just trying to think I
don't want to further confuse people cuz you're right that the communication everything is really tight. We're trying to make sure our FAQs are tight, our flyers, our press releases, everything. And so >> part of that language does include in the in you know for 2627 if your child turns 5 between you know August 16 and
October 1st then there's an exception here and some of the language does include for 2627. It doesn't say and I guess this is a question. Do we say future years are TBD? But I don't want it. I'm trying not to I'm trying to we're trying to have as little
uncertainty as possible while understanding there's a and I think there's a difference between future exceptions may be considered. >> Yeah. And I think from that perspective it's like under promise overperform, right? Like if we're saying okay for next year they can be grandfathered in
and then the board in a month and a half decides well the following year they can too then that's just going to make people happy. It's not going to don't think anybody's going to be unhappy about that. So I don't think that there's necessarily a drawback to keeping communications as they are and
then if it is extended being able to communicate out that >> I don't know I would still say two year roll out for the three-year-olds. >> Yeah. I I >> I just think it's hard for those kids that are already in in that trajectory and moving through the systems in these schools. There's already an exit date in
mind and that's I think a tough pivot for people. I agree with Director Trades. So, and I just want to clarify that would probably not call it a two-year roll out, but I would say two years of allowing a grandfathering in that's
good. Kind of what you're grandfather. trying to use his grandfathering because we >> put the leging years. >> Yeah, just like a a twoyear >> two years. >> Does that language need to be in this
policy or is there an intervening motion to amend? >> I don't think it goes in this policy. I think it's in the regulation. >> But in the policy where it says we will permit exemptions only during their transition period. That transition period could be where the wording can change, >> could be defined as >> I mean I would still propose what I
said. I propose that we approve it as is that we bring this back to policy committee on December >> whatever it is. Next time we have policy committee first, second, third and then we align on language and then we bring this right back for an update. It would take two reads to get that done. It
would be done in January. >> Right. Feedback from the board in the last meeting was not to include there used to be specific years and language here and feedback was to remove that. Yeah. >> And put it in regulation. >> Maybe it's cut and this is again I think a conversation we have a policy committee. Maybe that whole paragraph is cut and it's just included in the
regulation. >> And if we're bring that serves a purpose beyond this year >> and if we're bringing it back to policy committee can we talk about the regulation there too at that same time about the out of state moving in. So then why shouldn't we just table this one instead of bringing up
>> they need to be able to act. >> No, we need to vote on it now. >> I think if there's an intervening motion to pull paragraph 2 over to the regulation, um we could approve the policy without that. Our team can move forward knowing that we will yes permit exemptions
during the 26-27 school year and that policy committee will have further conversation about the regulation and extending that exemption period to 2728 and also looking at mid-year transfers and that those would be cleaned up in regulation. They don't require two reads. So if we have um clarity and
agreement from policy committee it's as simple as we've adjusted it. This is where we are. Here's the update. >> Yes. Sound right? I make a motion that paragraph 2 be pulled into regulation. Do >> you have a second? >> I second.
>> Okay. We ready to call a vote by >> Yes. >> And we're voting on the amended policy. >> Yes. >> We're voting on the um intervening motion to amend.
>> Yes. >> Yes. >> I hold on. I think we need to make a new motion to amend the policy JB as amended >> for director Titler's intervening motion. >> I second.
>> Now call Director Heft. >> Hi. >> Director Defrdes. >> Hi. >> Director Coolenberg. >> Hi. >> Director Ramirez. >> Hi. >> Director Titler. >> Hi. >> Thank you team. Okay. The next business in order is the
approval of three new district accountability members. Do I have a motion to approve the three new district accountability members? >> I move that the board approve the three new I move that the board approve the three new district accountability committee DAC members as presented. Do I
have a second? >> I second this. >> Perfect. Hi. I wasn't sure if you wanted me to say anything. I love that we're moving forward with the vote. I did um I I do want to tell you all a little bit about
our bylaws because we're going to have another vote coming up probably in your next board meeting as well. We're currently very active in growing the DAC. And so I just want to give you a baseline of where we're at and let you know sort of where we're moving forward
if that's okay. Yeah. >> So, currently we have four uh voted in members on the DAC, three parent members, and one community member or resident of the district who is not a parent with a child in the district. And
that is according to our bylaws. Tonight, our goal is to vote in one teacher, one business uh member, community community business member um of the district and who does not have a
child within the district and one parent uh one additional parent who has a parent at a a different school than we're already in. Um sorry that's a little bit confusing, but I would love to just let you know that the goal this year is to have 12 DAC members. DAC must
have no more than 15 members and all members of the DAC will be voting members. So we are actively growing. The pieces that were missing the um members that were missing to sort of meet the um establishment and composition are a
administrator and a parent of a charter school. So, we're actively recruiting there, but in the meantime, we're still working to just grow the DAC membership so that we can have more people involved. Are there any questions about
that? Thank you so much, Bridget, for being here tonight. We'll have two minute discussion for each board member, although I'm not sure if we're going to take up all our time, but I'll go ahead and give everybody the opportunity to ask questions if needed. Um we will
start with where do I finish director after? >> Great thanks and thanks Bridget for being here. I'll just I don't have any questions. Um just comment to say thanks for all you and the team on the DACK are doing to uh raise the profile of the deck and actively recruit members. It's
great to see another three signed up since the last meeting. I know there's a meeting this week. Um, so thank you and um I I don't have any questions about these members and I'm excited to have a chance to work with them as the board rep on the DACK.
>> Thank you, >> Director Colbert. >> Yeah, just echo the thanks and the gratitude for all you guys are doing to build out the DAC. Um my only comment about the additional membership would be that as you grow, I hope that you'll keep in mind the general ratios of
minimum DAC membership um and align those to your larger membership so that we don't have outsized like community participation that doesn't have children in our schools or you know nine parents and one teacher. like I just hope that we can keep the ratios somewhat similar
cuz I noticed we are approving a second community member um with no children in schools. So, and that's one of those categories where it's one in the in the CDE regs. So, that's my only comment, but thank you. >> The only thing that I would quickly say
about that, there is a clarification there um for our DAC members. Oh, let me pull up the right screen. um they do they are each meeting a different role. So, there's one person who's involved in a business or industry in the community
within the DAC boundaries and that role is being filled that we hope to be filled tonight by um Steve and I forget how to say his last name Fier Fosian. And the role of um a person at least one
resident of the deck who is not a parent with a child in the district is a separate role. Is that from your bylaws or from the regs? >> That is from our bylaws. Oh, >> okay. So, those differ than the regs. >> Okay. >> Yeah.
>> Director, >> I don't have additional questions. Thank you so much for your time and for the work that you're doing to bring this together. >> Director Titler, >> appreciate building up the deck and getting more membership. I guess my question is
how are we doing as a DAC of trying to match demographics of our district and trying to have representation from all the members of our community and and I'm seeing I'm just specifically
questioning um how are we doing with Latino representation and what is being done to bolster that. Yes, we we are currently lacking in our Latino uh population. Um and it's it's an area where we are
actively outreaching. We've sent some direct communication inviting folks to be on the DACK at charter schools and at other schools. Um but it is an area where we're falling short at the moment. >> Representation at the moment of Latina families.
>> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Oh, sorry. Um, we do not have representation at the moment from Latino families. >> Thank you. >> I'll just echo the gratitude. Thanks so much for being here tonight and for making sure um, you know, we we were
able to follow up on that conversation about your bylaws and I think it's um, the board just has so much gratitude for all of the volunteers who give their time to help um, not only support the DACK, but want to volunteer and be in it. Um, and I really appreciated your
leadership and making sure that um, we're working and staying focused to um, get new members. So, thank you so much for all of your work. >> Thank you. >> Um, are there any uh, motions invening motions to amend or
does anyone have any further discussion? Okay, we can call for a vote. >> Draft. >> Director F. >> I. >> Director Kenberg >> I. Directors. >> Hi, >> Director Titler. Hi. >> Thank you. I really appreciate all of
you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, President. >> Okay. The next business in orders is the approval of a board resolution honoring Native American Heritage Month. Do I have a motion to approve the board resolution honoring Native American Heritage Month? >> I move that the board approve the
resolution honoring Native American Heritage Month as presented. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. We will now have a two-minute discussion for each board member. Director Colberg, >> I'm grateful that we're doing this. As I always say, it's a small token, but I think that it is important that we
continually um recognize these months and highlight their importance in our communities and in our schools, but I don't have anything specific. Thank you, >> Director Deferred. >> Uh, yep. I'd like to echo Director Koulenberg's perspective. I appreciate this being brought forward. Thank you, chair, for the time you took.
Uh, Director Titler, >> I also approve of this and I like the fact that we're um celebrating diverse cultures and that we're taking time to raise awareness and be able to bring up historical injustices that have happened
in the past and recognizing that and especially considering we live in a land where the youth tribe lived and we're on their their land. >> Director U after Thanks. I don't have any comments on this. Thank you for putting it together.
>> And I'll just give gratitude to Jonathan for all of his work and making sure that not only are we abiding by our um resolutions on a monthly basis, but also um for making sure that this was on our agenda and all of the work um he put in
to follow up on this. Um 5 minutes for open discussion. Do any board members have further comments? Okay, you can please call for a vote. Hi, >> Director Frase. >> Hi, >> Director. >> Hi, >> Director. >> Hi,
>> Director Tyler. Hi, >> Director. Do you mind reading it? >> Sure. One second. >> Okay. Board of Education Education Resolution Honoring Native American Heritage Month. Whereas the month of
November is nationally recognized as Native American Heritage Month to celebrate the many unique Native American tribal nations which originally inhabited the lands now known as the United States each with their own diverse culture, history, religion, traditions, governance, and people
peoples. And whereas the peoples of these diverse indigenous cultures have been subject subjected to generations of cruelty, violence, and intimidation, including the forced removal of native peoples from their homes and ancestral homelands, attempts to assimilate entire generations and stripping of indigenous
peoples of their identities, cultures, and traditions. Actions which perpetuated trauma and turmoil which has fundamentally altered their communities. And whereas the entire Roaring Fork school district falls within the original unseated homelands of the Ute tribes. And whereas in educating the
children of the Roying Forks in the Roying Fork schools, it is appropriate that all children not only learn about, reflect upon, and cherish the many contributions that Native Americans have made to our society in American government, law, public service, business, agriculture, commerce,
education, the arts, science, and sports, but also understand the truth of their persistence and survival. And now, therefore, be it therefore be it resolved that the Roy Fork School District governing board acknowledges RFSD schools and properties are located
in the unseated ancestral homeland of the U people who are the original inhabitants of the Royan Fork Valley. And furthermore, be it resolved that the Royan Fork School District governing board hereby authorizes and encourages staff to plan and develop ways that we can teach our children and our community
about the lives and accomplishments of local indigenous people and the many sovereign tribal nations which flourish today and are working to strengthen the fabric of our own country. And now therefore, be it resolved that the Roy Fork School Board of Directors do hereby proclaim November to be Native American
Heritage Month and the Roaring Fork Schools and strongly encourage our staff and community to observe, recognize, and celebrate the culture, heritage, and contributions of Native Americans to our country, our state, our community, and our schools.
Thank you. Okay. The next business in order is approval of a board resolution to call to move. >> Oh, did we not? We just did that. Okay. >> Sorry. >> The next business in order is approval of a board resolution for culturally and linguistically diverse education. Do I
have a motion to approve the board resolution for culturally and linguistic diverse education? >> I move that the board approve the board resolution for cultural culturally and linguistically diverse education as presented. Do I have a second? My second.
We will now have two-minute discussion for each board member and five minutes of open discussion. Director Titler, so we can start off. >> Um, I would like to ask if I could extend my two minutes and maybe go up to five minutes. >> Yes. >> So, first of all, I want to say thank
you to everybody who allowed um played a part in allowing this resolution to come to fruition. I especially want to thank the board for all the time that we had working together. I would like to thank the staff and the support that we got from Dr. Cole, from her staff and
getting us and moving us forward. It took a lot of different discussions, a lot of different looks of what it would look like and getting to this point. But I especially want to talk about how this resolution is based on the fact that the roaring school fork schools will ensure
that every student develops the enduring knowledge, skills, and character to thrive in a changing world. And part of this resolution talks about um increasing comprehensible input and making sure that students are able to
engage in their studies in a way that will allow them to progress. When we look at what comprehensible input is and where that plays the big role is especially at kindergarten and first grade areas and when we look at the disagregated student enrollment that we
got presented today that in our elementary schools were ranging up into the 50% of children who are students who are NEP or LAP. So they're coming in to school not speaking English starting their schooling. They're coming from
families who have um less parents who as a whole have attended less school. There are students as a whole who are coming in with millions of less words spoken to them and asking them to be able to engage in
a conversation when the learning target is not matching their needs for their language levels as they're coming in. is very important that we have this increase in conversation and comprehensible input for students to be able to engage in their conversation.
When we look at students, we're wanting to make sure that they are able to either be having a language target or a academic target that meets their needs. And by stating that as a district that dual
language bilingual education is best practice and that if that is not available then we will be trying to give them native language literacy and upon doing that making sure as we were
brought up in conversation of using trans languaging strategies but it's more than just using this trans languaging strategy is making sure that what they're getting is that they'll need. And so if they're in kindergarten and first grade, by giving them native
language literacy, we know that they're going to be able to academically advance at the same time as they're learning English. And so that over time, we've all studies shows 5 to seven years before there's competency in their
second language. And so being able to allow them to progress academically at the same time that they are progressing in their language ability is going to allow them to get to a point where they're going to be fluent in both
languages and already have the academic skills necessary. And so I think a perfect example is what is happening up at Basalt Elementary where dual language programming has been happening for many years and has been done.
The kids who the students who just were in fourth grade this past year who we just got data on are the first group of students that have gone through since first grade. Starting this year's fourth graders are going to be ones who started in kindergarten or am I offering
>> in kindergarten. And it was >> so these fourth graders were the first group that started in kindergarten. And if we look at the results from Basalt of our Latino children, if you look at their scale score in English language
arts, their scale score is at a 742, which puts them at the meets expectations as a group for Latino students. When we look at all of our other elementary schools combined, their average is 712, which puts them in the
does not meet. And so when we're looking at that type of data, when we're looking at the fact that students exiting language services at the Basalt Middle School is 62% of children have exited services. When we look at the rest of
the district, 46% have exited services. that it's showing that this is what comprehensible input is that they during their time have been able to achieve academically. Their their language skills are catching up to them. And just
and the last thing I would like to include is this is a process. It's not something that's going to happen overnight, but we're here to honor the fact that these students have a way to move forward with their
with their learning. And we're not saying that this happens tomorrow and that we need all schools to jump on tomorrow. We need to take into account timelines, challenges, implementations, staffing, involving the schools in the process to
make sure they're on board and not be what we're hearing is top down. We're not saying how it needs to be done. We're not saying the way it needs to be done. We're just saying we need you involved and if your schools are not meeting the needs of where the students
are, then we need to make some changes to get to there. And so I just would like to say thank you to the people and the systems that have allowed this to pass forward to this time. >> Director after great um thanks to the
board of education members especially director Titler for the work that into putting this resolution together and thanks to Dr. Cole, Dr. Park and Amy Fairbanks among others for your leadership here. So, in the months since the resolution's been available, we've
received feedback on it, both positive and constructive. And I'm really thankful to the community, especially CLLD coaches and teachers, for making your voices heard over the past few weeks. We heard from people who said that it did not go far enough, that it lacks teeth. And we also heard from
people who said it's too much too fast. I don't think anyone here thinks this resolution is absolutely perfect. But I strongly believe that we can't let perfect be the enemy of the good and that this is good progress. My feeling here is that this is a first step and
not more or less than that. It's meaningful that this is coming in the form of a resolution and not a top- down policy. It's a declaration of a value that describes a clear vision for the students who are on various parts of their language development journey. I
also want to share with the community that the discussion around CLLDE has led us to important conversations about literacy overall in elementary schools and that's an important and good outcome of this process. And then my last point here is that to a
te everyone who's sitting up here tonight was elected in what can be called landslides with campaigns focused on closing the achievement gap. And so this board felt urgency to do what we can because it's what we were elected to
do. And this is one step in the direction. It's by no means the only step we need to take to close the achievement gap. It is just one but one very important step. >> Thank you, Director Clberg.
>> Thank you. Um and thank you, Director Tyler, for pushing this work forward. Thank you, Superintendent Cole, and all of your staff for all of the time and energy that was put into this. Um, and I just want to echo a lot of what I think Director just hit most of the points
that I wanted to make on the head very eloquently, so I don't think that I need to rehash them, but in saying that I support this, this is a resolution. The board has different levers that they can pull and ways that they can exercise power. Um but ultimately it's the board's job to set the direction and it
is then incumbent upon the superintendent and staff to ensure that the roll out of this is done in a way that um is successful and that includes involving staff, teachers, building leaders, all of all of those people who need to be involved and engaged and I'm
fully confident that that will happen. Um so I'm I'm proud that the board is taking this step. I think that moving is better than stasis and I think that um we are seeing the results of high quality dual language programming and
those results are um resoundingly clear in a lot of ways and we need to figure out how to replicate that because it's not okay that some of our students are getting that and others are not. So um I I support this and thank you director Titler for not letting it die and for
sticking with it. Director DFries, >> I can't add much to my colleagues perceptions, eloquent descriptions, um, but just want to emphasize the urgency and the appreciation I have for the determination of Director Titler pushing
through various obstacles to bring this forward. And, um, I do want to recognize uh, the concern of staff and educators who look at this as just it is, you know, it's another thing and there's a lot going on. There's a daily list of of
requirements and procedures and and necessary steps, communications, and just being emotionally and physically present for small needy beings. And there is a very real recognition of that burden here on the board, which is why
this is sort of had to strike a balance between just like um other directors said, being too much and too little. um setting a direction but making sure that the steps will include and I'm reading here take into account community engagement and support clear outcomes instructional expertise and capacity
curricular resources human resources professional development and sustainability in the development of implementation plans that um adhere to this. It is not policy and we we are trusting our staff because staff at the district and leadership at the district
continually proves themselves to be able to meet incredibly high marks and I really do hope that the community maintains an open channel with us. However, we are we are serving this school district and the people within it and the students within it. Um, and so
this this question or this this acceptance of a resolution is so important, but it's it's not the final word and it's not a closed door on communication with the people who are in I mean the trenches dayto-day with implementation. So we look forward to that continued outreach and and
perspective and encourage it. Um, so that's that's all I have to add. >> Thank you. I will echo the sentiment of the board of gratitude for director Titler in leading this charge and this conversation for the board to not only uplift it with the team but to make sure
that we had a resolution um before your departure. Um, I want to also highlight, you know, the board's commitment to, um, not only being open to feedback and criticism and, um,
constructive um, feedback and all of the work. I think, you know, we welcome it. It's really important for the board that we as much as possible hear from the boots on the ground, from our teachers, from our staff. Um there is obviously things
that we recognize as a board that are missing from this uh resolution and there is a commitment from this board to continue to do the work um and to continue to have these conversations. Um, one thing I will note is, you know,
there was a a call for um the evaluation of um the CLLDE department and I think that that was something that we as a team um in further conversations I think in the coming future this will is
something that director Tyler uplifted and brought a lot of things um to the board's and our team's um purview and I think we're going to continue to uplift that. So, we want to encourage community teachers, um staff, especially those who
are working in our district who are working hands-on with these programs to please continue to reach out to us, to continue to let us know, um what we need to do better. And we also want to commit to our students and to our families um
that we want something to shift. And we this was I think a lot of work, a lot of commitment, a lot of um conversation and I really appreciate that the board has really worked through some of those conversations to come to this resolution today and we know that the work
continues. Okay, we have 5 minutes for open discussion if anyone would like to add further comments. Okay, you call for a vote. >> I director I. >> Director Kenberg, >> I.
>> Director, >> hi. >> Director Tyler, >> I. >> Director Tyler, if you'll do us the honor of reading it. >> Resolution to advance educational equity for emerging bilingual students in the Roaring Fork School District. Whereas the Roaring Fork School District serves
a diverse population of around 5,400 students, of which approximately 50% are considered bilingual thinkers and 25 to 30% of students are emergent bilingual students, actively receiving culturally and linguistically diverse educational programming.
Bilingual think thinkers include students ranging from non-English proficient to students who have primary home language other than English but may consider English as their primary language. N whereas despite consistently strong WDEA access English language proficiency growth scores from the
emerging bilingual learners and low long-term English language learner percentages year-toear disparities still exist between multilingual learners, emerging bilingual students and native Englishspeaking students on CAMASS, PSAT, SAT growth and achievement data.
when we examine the achievement data of all language students as one group. And whereas academic standardized tests with inherent cultural and linguistic biases prohibit meaningful access to the examin exam by emerging bilingual students classified as NEP, no English
proficiency, and LOP, limited English proficiency, and can lead to an incomplete understanding of students abilities and the effectiveness of the program that serve them. And whereas whereas extensive research in the fields of linguistics, cognitive
science, and education demonstrates that dual language education, defined as programming where language majority and language minority students are in heterogeneously mixed classes for all content areas and are taught in two languages, is the most effective educational model for emerging bilingual
students when conditions are appropriate. And whereas studies consistently show that students in dual language educational programs re achieve higher long-term academic success on national normed assessments. Therefore, it be resolved that the board affirm
dual language education as a research-based best practice for educating multilingual learners, including our large population of emergent bilingual students, multilingual learners, and commit to its support and expansion in our schools. and therefore it be resolved that the ro
that the board supports the strategic use of the students full linguistic repertoire noting that when dual language program isn't programming is not feasible other forms of bilingual programming should be implemented along with a foundation of trans languaging pedagogy to increase comprehensible
input throughout the students day schools should make every effort to provide Spanish literacy programming for native Spanish-sp speakaking students when dual language programming is not feasible and Be it further resolved that the that the district will identify in
this annual CLLDE program review the most appropriate CLLDE programming for each school using disagregated academic achievement data by language status for appropriate interpretation of results. These include Ruda access, median growth percentiles, the common components for
highquality CLLDE programming and instruction, CAMASS, PSAT, and PSAT scores of emerging bilingual students in the CLLDE program review that align with Supreme Court law. Be it further resolved that as part of the annual CLLDE program review process,
schools that are not currently delivering the appropriate CLLDE programming or taking steps to approve the selected model will develop and submit concrete plans to the board of education. These plans linked to the CLLDE program review school summaries
will include timelines, action steps, analysises of challenges and opportunities, smarty goals, and estimated budgets that detail the steps necessary to implement appropriate CLLD programs at the schools. These analysises must take into account
community engagement and support, clear outcome, instructional expertise and capacity, curricular resources, human resources, professional development, and sustainability in the development of an imple implementation plans.
>> Thank you. >> The next business in order is the approval of a board resolution honoring Director Kenny Tyler. Do I have a motion to approve the board resolution honoring Director Kenny Taylor? >> I move that we approve the board
resolution honoring Director Kenny Tyler. >> I second. >> Jinx, >> we will now have two minute discussions for each board member and five minutes for open discussion. Director Kenberg. >> Oh man,
Mr. Kenny, I'm going to miss you terribly. I'm gonna get sad that you're leaving. Um, we came into this together and it's been crazy four years, but I'm happy
that you're getting to move on and enjoy time with your family. Um, and I'll always be grateful from the lessons that I learned and the conversations that you've had with me and the help that you've given me. Um, and the love, respect, and care that you've shown, not just for all of
students in the Roaring Park School District, but for my own kids, too. So, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Director, >> this is the third place that you've had to put up with me professionally. >> I'm sorry. Um,
Mr. Kenny put up with me as a brand new teacher. um offered some very patient and well scoped perspective on how to deal with my very diverse classroom in the first few years. Um, I think your
ability to see what someone needs in that moment and what they're ready to accept and understand and um, you deliver that information with such intuitive um, ability to reach the heart of the
matter. And I it's so funny because I remember you offered some gentle suggestions and looking back on like what my original classroom looked like, I just cringe. um you invited me to come along with you teaching with adult learners which was an incredible experience for me with CMC. Um I
appreciated the trust you put in me with that class and I learned a tremendous amount engaging with those incredible individuals. Um and then stumbling on to you here on the board again and again feeling those gentle pushes at the right
time and in the right amount. And that is an incredible skill. and I know that I'm not the only one in the community that has grown directly because of it. >> Thank you, >> drafter. Um, I have probably known you the least
amount of time as everyone up here, but I knew of you before joining the board with you. And you have always been so gracious and generous with me, explaining the world of education
and everything I didn't know. And I saw it again tonight with how you interacted with our soontobe board member Tammy in our work session, just stopping to make sure she understood where we were in the conversation. And I think that speaks to
your uh innate desire to make sure everyone is brought along and this resolution tonight is part of that. I think it's it's emblematic of your uh approach to human relationships and to the care that you give to the community.
So, thank you for all the learning and the time. So much time. >> Thank you, Park School District. Um, director, if you don't mind me solution. >> Oh, sure. Call for a vote.
>> Director After. >> Hi. >> Director Nefra. >> Hi. >> Director Kenberg. >> Hi. >> Director Ramirez. >> Hi. >> Director Titler. >> Uh, we had to make the margins non-existent for you, Kenny.
>> It's true. Resolution honoring Kenny Tyler for three decades of service to the students of the Roaring Fork Valley. Whereas Kenny Titler has dedicated his career to serving Roaring Fork school students as a classroom teacher, substitute teacher, college educator, tutor, volunteer, and mentor, and has
dedicated thousands of hours to improving schools, including being instrumental in establishing the district's first biiteracy programming. Consistently bringing humility, preparation, and student- centered advocacy, especially for new newly arrived and immigrant students, to every
meeting, school visit, and community conversation. Vice President Betsy After shared, "I'm grateful to have worked with and learned from Kenny. His attention to detail, meticulous preparation, and insistence on progress, even when it is uncomfortable, kept student outcomes
front and center. Whereas since 2021, Kenny has served on the board of education representing district A and during that time served as the board representative in interestbased bargaining with certified staff and to Colorado River Boseies and contributed to committees including housing and finance." Board director Lindseay
Defrades shared, "Kenny Titler is just Mr. Kenny to most of the community, a title bestowed on him by the hundreds of students and parents who know him that he to know parents who know that he is a listening ear, a gentle teacher, and a strong advocate. I've been lucky enough to spend time working with him in all of
those capacities, and I'm so grateful for what I have learned along the way." And whereas during his board service, Kenny has been a steady and essential voice for English language learners and immigrant students and families, championing policies such as policy IHBA, ADB, and resolution culturally and
linguistically diverse education and working to remove barriers and provide equitable opportunities for all students. According to Superintendent Dr. Anna Cole, Kenny has capped off a long career in education with service to the board of education. His years of board service were extremely dynamic.
Kenny led by continuously centering the needs of emerging bilingual students and the families and staff who support them. He has been instrumental in strengthening policy and practice in culturally and linguistically diverse education and diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. We will miss
his leadership, partnership, and collaboration on the board and in all the committees can be supported. We will also miss his humor, warmth, and faith and the promise of highquality education for transforming the lives of children, families, and communities. And whereas Kenny has done this work for decades
tirelessly and passionately to the benefit of students, board president Jasmine Ramirez shared, "Mr. Kenny has been a champion for students, families, and staff over the past four years, and his work to push the district will be to be more equitable and student focused will continue to be appreciated for
years to come." Board Director Katherryn Koulenberg added, "Kenny has been an incredible asset to the district on so many levels, from classrooms to boardrooms. Serving with him has been a privilege and I will deeply miss him. His drive, unwavering commitment to students and his ability to push for
accountability respectfully and vigorously. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Roaring Fork School District Board of Education expresses its profound appreciation and gratitude to Kenny Titler for his distinguished service as an educator, mentor, and board director,
and for his enduring contributions to educational equity and e excellence across the Roaring Fork Valley. >> That's nice. Thank you. That was nice. Thank you. >> All right, team. >> Thank you. >> The next business in order is the board
updates and appreciations and we will begin with director Tyler. >> Well, I would like to just though thank you for all the kind words. It means a lot. It's been uh honored to be able to serve on the
board and it feels like my education journey has been a little bit of a full circle and so I appreciate it and I specifically want to say thank you to
the board for all of the work that you all put in. the way that we work together. It can be difficult at times. It can be hard. It's not an easy job. And so, just um I
appreciate your being there and support. And to the staff, I want to just say thank you for I know I push hard sometimes. I appreciate you working with me. I
appreciate your willingness to listen and I appreciate um the opportunity to get to serve and Carla I want to say thank you for letting me do this but also Carla's dad
was a superintendent so she understands the difficulty of it and what it entails and so she's kept her distance for her sanity and understanding how that works. But I appreciate your
support of me doing this job and I'll miss being here. >> Meetings are open to the public. You >> I'll be signing up for my next public comment. >> Um I don't have many reviews so I or updates sorry. So, I want to take my
time to thank the board. Just reflecting on the meeting tonight, the work session previously and conversations that I know board members were having in advance in preparation for discussions today. It strikes me that we are able with the
leadership of the staff and the um our chair uh director Ramirez that we're able to pack an awful lot in to a single meeting and any one of these items whether it's JB the DAC the enrollment
numbers and October count the financial implications of that um CLLD resolution and honoring of value and cherish board member. Any one of those could take all night. Um and so it is uh remarkable to
me how much we pack in. Um and so I'm grateful to you all for um making us do the do the hard work. Thank you, >> director. >> Sure. Um my update is that the election cycle is
over. I'm very pleased that it is over. um and also with the outcome. So, I will be here for four more years and not saying goodbye like Kenny. Um and I wanted to give a couple notes
of thanks. Um the first is to all of our community, our staff, everyone who is involved and engaged through this election cycle, all of the organizations that hosted forums. Um I think it's all critical and I think that in reflecting on it um what's come forward in my own
mind is the importance of engagement and just seeing the increased engagement the cycle um was really uh uplifting and I think reaffirming for me in serving in this role which isn't as we all know isn't always sunshine and rainbows um
but we're all here to serve our community and they showed up this election cycle and gave us the go-ahehead to continue and do it. So, I'm I'm thankful for that. I also wanted to give a shout out that I give I think every fall and that is for the staff at Basalt Elementary who
voluntarily go through conferences every fall with both teachers and the team sitting down with every single student because it is a dual language school and so they have a staff member who speaks each language at every single conference voluntarily
every fall. Um, and I just think that it is an incredible testament to the devotion and the leadership in the building and the commitment to excellence in family engagement that has been cultivated there and it's extra time out of their
days. And so I'm very grateful for that um as a parent and as a board member because I know it's meaningful for a lot of families. So those are my two >> directors. Um, quick updates. So you guys might have read all this in the in superintendent update on Friday, but um
IBB met for the first time on October 30th. And so just wanted to let you all know that that process has been starting. Um two interests have been brought forward that'll get more attention once the committees have had time towards Smith and make sure that they're focused the way that they want to. Um staff did an excellent job
accommodating what was sort of a challenging start because our facilitator ended up being sick and could not attend in person and so they had to kind of make some last minute adjustments and keep everything moving forward when he was trying to help facilitate um virtually. I do think one
good takeaway was it started with all IBB participants in the room. So admin and classified and certified and all of them got a walkth through on the process. Um for me, you know, for some of the longtime serving certified members, teachers who've been in IBB for ages, this was all review, but it was
helpful review. But for many of them, it was just a brand new introduction to the process. Not brand new because they done it last year, but it was a really good way to just sort of clarify it. Um those slides have been shared if you find yourself wondering what is IBB, how does this go? They were really helpful. So um it's a good resource there. I just
wanted to share that labor management committee has been going along with that um facilitating the agenda and making sure that we are doing close read studies of the contract um and making sure that leadership for RFCA
is is understanding that document and and making sure that we all recognize it'll be up for renewal before you know it. and so spending the time to make notes and and work together and continue to hear teachers concerns about it implementation and staff as well. So
that is all ongoing. Um I sent out a brief note about communications committee trying to get it started thinking about it in a quarterly manner not monthly. I don't think that's necessary but um that is underway as well and more to come. appreciation is actually for GS who did
a camping out night last night. A practice camp out night under the Aurora Borealis. I heard it was absolutely incredible. Yeah. So, the kids were learning to make fires and they were hiking in the dark and the sky was just blowing up and you know that all the teachers stayed and did all that extra
stuff as well. So, appreciation for them. Um but what an incredible opportunity. I I imagine that's going to be a core memory. So >> did I do you? Yes. Yeah. >> Um just a update. We had finance committee on Monday and um you know we
went through finance today. So I think there's just a lot of conversation there to come um in the coming months. And so I appreciate and will say forever how thankful I am that we have a finance committee. Um and then just an appreciation some of our schools I
believe most of our schools had a Veterans Day celebration. um yesterday and I just want to appreciate all of the schools who take the time to thank our veterans. I think it's incredibly important that our kids get to uh not only acknowledge the veterans and their
communities, but also to be able to um see what that looks like of um civic service recognizing our heroes. Um and I think it was really important for us to have assemblies like that for students to participate and to give thanks and
gratitude um for um veterans. So, thank you to all of our schools. All right, team. Um, if there is no further business and there's no objection, the meeting will be adjourned. It is 9:01 p.m.
>> Thank you.